Parking controversy in Carytown continues
Scott Dickens, the owner of Glass and Powder, appealed to Richmond City officials to back away from the 2-hour parking enforcement in Carytown. Citing poor economic conditions, Dickens argues that enforcement of the rule will penalize already hurting merchants.
How about a compromise – enforce the regulations on the weekends when congestion is highest, and relax them on weekdays when it’s usually fairly easy to get a spot.
View Dickens’s email to the city after the jump…
City Officials,
I own a business in Carytown. I constantly promote the shopping district in my work with the Retail Merchants Association and the Carytown Merchants Association, as well as in my media production company. One of the resounding objections raised by shoppers and potential customers alike is the lack of parking. Now, in addition to the limited parking in the city’s premiere shopping district, the city has decided to aggressively enforce the “2 Hour Parking” policy by marking tires and ticketing shoppers.
I’m sure that city officials read the news and have noticed the distinct LACK of retail traffic in general with the current economic state of the nation. We have vacancies in the district, with several businesses closing their doors in the past month alone. Why would the city choose THIS summer to enforce this parking restriction? Moreover, why is the shopping district subject to this policy to begin with? Shoppers can’t possibly park, shop, and grab a sandwich without exceeding this limit, much less browse stores and truly enjoy the ambiance of the shopping area. Why do we constantly strive to promote the city’s benefits if the city rewards shoppers by ticketing them, therefore driving them out to Henrico to shop in Short Pump?
Please suspend ticketing in Carytown for the sake of merchants and the shoppers that we’re working so hard to attract. It will be in our collective best interest.
Thank you for your time,
Scott
Interesting, I was just thinking, what if we had no cars in Carytown!
And then I visit the paper’s website and bam…
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-06-20-0244.html
Hurrah! What a great idea Goldman!! I’ve always wanted this for Carytown.
Regardless: has anyone bothered to try and park in the two free parking decks in Carytown? Someone should go and monitor the number of cars in them over the course of the week. I feel like no on knows they are even there.
And plus, why would you want to park *on* Cary St. It’s like a death wish.
Ugh, no! Goldman’s idea for a car free Carytown is AWFUL! I live in Carytown South, and all the cars would end up in our neighborhood. I love Carytown. There is nothing wrong with it. Why screw up a good thing?
Plus, if you wanted to visit the new car-free Carytown, you’d have to park a few blocks away and walk, even if you were just hopping in. People who work in Carytown will take up all the close parking in the alleys (which would be full of traffic, great) and this would decrease business.
Goldman lost my vote.
How could they widen the sidewalks a bit for planting beds. Having lived blocks from the “Mag Mile” in Chicago it is always disappointing to be in a shopping district that is drab and somewhat littered.
Any word on shops moving into the vacant spaces? A moderate priced men’s shop would be nice. How about a small hardware store?
Hey Cary HUFF,
There’s varied words about shifts and shufflings about the empty spaces scattered throughout this site. We’ve got a video game store going into the former Decor, Glassboat is moving into another space, Penzey’s spices moved in, something is going into the former Elephant’s Toe. But that’s just a few.
For a bit of history, S & K used to have a big men’s store in what became Pirouzan Oriental Rugs, way back in the early 1980s, and it was actually boarded up for awhile.
Carytown within the past 15 years had two hardware stores that had been there between them probably 40 years, one of which was Lorraine, that half-Tudor place that forms part of Leo Burke now.
That there isn’t a hardware store today in Cartown is more symptomatic of the problems small hardware retailers–and small retailers period–have had in the face of national franchises.
Is the small hardware store behind VCU on Cary St. still there?
Andy, I don’t think Goldman should lose anyone’s vote over this idea. Good or Bad – it’s something worth looking at. Would this really improve Carytown?
Slow down the traffic with two way streets and improve the public spaces. The master plan we all bled over calls for the removal of one way streets in favor two way traffic to slow traffic and improve “walkability”. I think blocking the street limits accessibility of outside traffic which is the area’s life’s blood. Folks are not parking in the decks as it is, why would they start if the street were to be blocked off. Slow down the traffic and the area is plenty pedestrian friendly as it is. Advertising the decks might help but until there are lights and cameras visitors will be leery. Best of luck to CT merchants association in getting that worked out.
There is also something more fundamental and much easier to manage that does not involve monkeying with the traffic pattern. Regardless of rents, many shop owners are not taking care of their store fronts, most of the tree wells look like crap, and their are weeds in the cracks of most sidewalks and even in the street at the curb. Those that do take care of their responsibilities understand that it is not extra but a requirement for a healthy business to keep your storefront looking welcoming and well cared for.
I think the four hour parking limit is a good start but if the point to the parking “question” is that resolving it is the panacea to all Carytown challenges, I think the work necessary is further up on the sidewalk than in the street.